COPPERBELT local Government officer Solomon Sakala has said the Government has been disbursing grants to the councils on time as it wanted the local authorities to provide quality services to the citizenry.
Mr Sakala who outlined the grants that the councils received from the Government last year in an interview yesterday said despite not managing to collect all the ground rates, the councils could still manage to offer services through the Government grants.
In Kitwe for instance, Kitwe City Council (KCC) as at December 31 last year received restructuring grant of K2.4 billion and two general grants of K800 million and K600 million.
The council had earlier collected K1 billion as restructuring grant, which was meant to pay terminal benefits for workers who had gone on voluntary separation.
KCC received K350 million as grant in lieu of rates, which are rates paid by Government institutions like schools and health centres.
Ndola City Council (NCC) got K1.2 billion as restructuring grant, and K600 million as grants in lieu of rates for September last year.
NCC also got the recurrent grant of K1.3 billion in two phases of K800 million and K50 million.
Beside these grants, Chingola, Mufulira, Kitwe, Luanshya and Ndola received another K1 billion each as restructuring grants to pay terminal benefits for the workers that went on voluntary separation.
Mr Sakala said all provincial city councils received K600 million, municipals got K200 million and districts were given K100 million as annual grants.
Mr Sakala said on average the councils collected between 53 per cent and 75 per cent of their budget.
He said President Banda had every right to be annoyed when the picture portrayed to the citizenry was that the Government was doing nothing when huge sums of money were being released to the councils.
Mr Banda recently said it was painful that despite releasing huge sums of money to the councils, some councillors maintained that the Government was not doing anything.
He said he would not be surprised to see that the Patriotic Front (PF)-led councils were using the same grants to de-campaign his government.
Chingola Municipal Council receives more than K18.4 billion per year, Nchanga Member of Parliament Wylbur Simusa said.
He said in an interview that the council receives K6.6 billion every year (K550m per month) from Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), more than K800 million in Government grants per year and more than K11 billion per annum from rates and levies from various properties.
He said the council “disappointingly” spends everything and most of the time it had budget overruns.
He said the wage bill was huge and the council also needed to pay its retirees.
And Kitwe City Council received more than K30 billion in grants and through collection of property rates in the 2008 and 2009 financial years.
According to the council’s statement of incomes and expenditure released to the Times yesterday, the council collected in excess of K12.6 billion in property rates.
The amount increased by about K2 billion the following year when the council collected K14 billion.
However the council spent K9 billion, more than half of the total incomes, on salaries and other administrative costs.
In the same year, the council collected the most in property rates in August when it received K2.3 billion, while the lowest income was in May, having collected K515 million.
The statements also indicate that all the amounts went towards provision of various services and purchase of equipment.
The services included refuse removal, fire services, cleaning of roads and drainages, and rehabilitation of markets.
About K1.1 billion was spent on the purchase of a light truck, minibus and utility vehicles, and K580 billion was spent on preparation of the valuation roll.
A further K1 billion was spent on various ward projects and the K9.9 billion balance was used for salaries and other administrative costs.
And the council received K4.1 billion in various grants in 2009, of which it spent K3.9 billion.
It received K2.4 billion as a grant to pay retirees, K600 million and K800 million as general grants, and K350 million grant in lieu of rates.
The retirees’ money was paid, apart from K183 million yet to be collected by the concerned retirees, while the general grants were spent on the purchase of two tipper trucks and one front-end loader.
And Town Clerk Ali Simwinga welcomed calls for councils to be audited, saying that was an indication that people were interested to know about their operations.
Mr Simwinga said auditing the councils was normal and only people who were ignorant about the operations of the councils could get excited about such calls.
“I think there is nothing to be excited about councils being audited because our council has been audited before. The Local Government Act Chapter 281 of the laws of Zambia demands that councils should be audited,” Mr Simwinga said.
Ndola Mayor Charles Chiwala said the council had not yet received the K40 billion which was reportedly released by the central Government.
He admitted that the roads in the city’s central business district were not in a good condition.
“We are sure that once the money is sent, it will be accompanied with documents on the guidelines on how to use it,” he said.
He said the council’s revenue base increased after the PF took over the council and reviewed the valuation roll for mining companies which saw the city’s only copper mine, Bwana Mkubwa, increase the amount paid in annual rates.
Meanwhile, Lusaka City Council (LCC) has said it does not collect K90 billion from ground rates as insinuated by some sections of society.
LCC public relations manager Chanda Makanta said the highest amount of money collected was about K16 billion in 2005.
In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mrs Makanta said in 2006 the council collected K15 billion, K14 billion in 2007 while between 2008 and 2009 only K14 billion was collected.
Mrs Makanta said the money collected was being used mainly on street lighting and cleaning of the city.
She said the money being collected from ground rates was not enough to maintain the city to the public’s expectations because of failure by some residents to pay their dues.
She said LCC was aware of the expectations of the public to provide satisfactory services such as maintenance of roads, but the council was unable to meet the demands because the road taxes it used to collect were now under the jurisdiction of RDA.
She said at the markets, little money was collected due to the poor state of the markets.
The other source of revenue was the houses but when they were sold, the council lost out.Council grants enough for service provision
[Times of Zambia]
Yes these prospective PF controlled Councils is a night mere They must be accountable to the people.They have fail to prove to us that they can run a central government.There is need to take audit of these extreme plunderer.they have failed to demonstrate good leadership.
Now look at the roads which are said should be maintaned by the Councils,they are pathetic so to speak. [-(Let govt thru RDA take over the maintainance of roads in all residential areas if it means to come up with another form of tax like you slaped on us carborn tax and we still do not know it’s usage let it be.The much talked about CDF will remain insufficient and it’s not known who accounts for it.
PF is a disastrous to this this country.there action speak louder than what than the mouth can.Abashhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh PF/UPND pact
This Minister is either a hypocrite or lier who is not fit to hold public office. To claim that Councils recieve enough grants to provide services is dishonest of the worst kind. For example, what these guys in govt call grants are actually a quid pro quo for GRZ buildings not paying property rates. Every building in town is suppose to pay rates based on its value, however, govt is suppose to pay the Councils a grant equal to the rates they should pay, they never do. And when they make a token payment, they make it look like they have done Councils a favour.
However, even the K6.Billion they mention is nothing. To do 1Km of tarred road, the cost is K1.2 billion, so their K6 B can only do 4Km of roads. Lusaka has 700km of roads, how are they supposed to done. And the other services??
Refer to #4
Why is it that PF cadres are full of Insults, they always use strong language or some elements of emotions can be seen when debating? Any way they are PF CADRES
Ba betters (#5) I don’t see any bad language in Kibakiman’s post (#4). I think the point is that a lot of cadres here use bad language, both PF & MMD. In fact of late when you compare statements by the leaders of the 2 parties, MMD seems to be outdoing PF at PF’s original trademark.
The City Council should provide services and delivers before asking for money. Where work has been done we have to contribute for that service.